


A Cat, A War and Oranges

by Lymmel



Category: Captain America (Movies), PVPonline, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Tree, F/M, Great Depression, Kitty - Freeform, Oranges, Steve/darcy swap, World War II, ds_holidayexchange, minor mention of other avengers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 18:02:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lymmel/pseuds/Lymmel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A Christmas Story for the Steve/Darcy Holiday Art/Fic exchange.</p>
<p>Steve and Darcy. A cat and a Christmas tree. The past and the present.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Cat, A War and Oranges

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TacitPermission](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TacitPermission/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Artwork for A Cat, A War and Oranges](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096886) by [Lymmel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lymmel/pseuds/Lymmel). 



On the day before Christmas Eve, Darcy walked into the apartment only to see Steve glaring about eye height at the Christmas tree. The two of them started dating for about eight months ago. While they weren't at the moving in together stage, they spent most of their time in Steve's much larger apartment.  
  
He turned to look at her. “I love you dearly but I really hate your Aunt right now.”  
  
Darcy laughed. “Cat is in the tree again?”  
  
“It's not funny, he managed to get himself tangled into the wiring of the lights, I'm trying to figure out how to get him out without taking down the entire tree.”  
  
….  
  
 _Darcy's Aunt Daria (shut up Tony), had come by about a week ago and dropped off a kitten at the lab for Darcy. Her cat had several kittens and she declared it was Darcy's family duty to take care of this one. Darcy hadn't been there to argue with her so the cat sat in the box in the lab until she got back from lunch with Steve. Darcy grumbled about how her apartment didn't allow pets and Steve offered up his apartment as a place for the kitty to stay until such time as alternate housing could be arranged._  
  
 _Tony started “coughing” at that. Bruce reached over and slapped him upside the head._  
  
 _“What was that for?” Tony exclaimed._  
  
 _“You're about to say something that Darcy would take offense at. She would then ask me to hit you. I figured I'd be proactive.” Bruce replied._  
  
 _“Thanks Bruce, I owe you one.” Darcy said while Steve cracked up._  
….  
  
Darcy walked over to the tree and looked at the cat.  “Mmmm, well I think I might be able to get him out or at least get the wires off. My smaller hands should fit into the tree branches better.”  
  
She reached in and gently removed the wires from the cat. But the cat wasn't inclined to leave the tree.  
  
“I suppose we could bribe him with food.” Steve commented.  
  
“No, we can't do that he’ll start to climb the tree to get more food.”  
  
Steve flopped down onto the couch and sighed.  “I'm fine with him staying in there as long as he's not chewing on the wiring.” He dropped his head back onto the couch and looked up at the ceiling.  
  
Darcy, sensing something was off sat down on the couch next to him. “Hey what's going on? You are kind of out of it.”  
  
Steve looked at her sideways. He knew if he tried to distract her, she would just come back to it later. So he gave up. “I'm just missing the past ya know. Christmas is soooo different from what I remember. It didn't used to be such a big deal. Now its everywhere and for months. All I can think about is how different things were when I was a kid and how much I miss the people I knew.”  
  
“The holidays can have that kind of an effect,” Darcy commented.  “I mean everybody starts getting homesick around this time of year even if their Christmases were awful as a child. You're  not the only one missing the past. That pretty much makes you par for the course for a 21st-century man, congratulations.”  
  
“Ha, ha” Steve deadpanned.  
  
“Why don’t you tell me about what Christmas is like when you were young. I always love learning how people lived in different time periods. And maybe if you talk about it you will feel better.”  
  
Steve spent the next few minutes thinking. “Well, ya know, I guess there were four different kinds of Christmases for me. I guess I can tell you about them.”  
  
“Oh goody story time!”  
  
 **Ma and me.**  
  
We didn't have a lot Ma and me. Dad had died early on and I was sickly all the time. There wasn't much money and Ma worked a lot. I hadn’t met Bucky yet so I spent most of my time indoors.  
  
Still remember what it was like though. I was almost always sick in the winter especially around Christmas time. Ma would hang up some colorful paper decorations over my bed. When Christmas Day came round she would make us Mock Apple pie, and if things were going well I got a small stocking with a couple of pencils and an orange.  
  
A couple years I was too sick to go to mass. So Ma went out and got a bunch of extra candles.  She put them around the room and window sill. With them all lit up and the lanterns off it looked really pretty. The two of us would sing (well try to sing) a few Christmas carols until I fell asleep.  
  
 **The Orphanage**  
  
When she died I was sent to one of the local Catholic orphanages. Nobody thought I'd get adopted because I was too sick. That is the reason I didn’t end up on the orphan train as well. I ended up in with the hopeless cases. I met Bucky on the first day. A couple of bigger boys were into trying to beat me up and he came in and smacked the tar out of them. He got a whipping for his trouble too. The nuns didn't like him fighting.  
  
I went to thank him for helping me and he told me that it was nothing. The two of us became best friends that day. He always looked out for me.  
  
Christmas time at the orphanage was the only time of the year there was any color in the place. The walls were gray, the floors were gray, the clothes were gray, just gray everywhere. One of the nuns was German and she set up the little tree in the dining hall every year.  They tried to teach us a bunch more Christmas carols. We would sing from time to time in church.  
  
Christmas was also the time everybody did their charitable works. So we would end up getting some used clothes, oranges and maybe some raisins on Christmas Day. We were way better off then a lot of kids still out on the street.  
  
 **Me and Bucky**  
  
Me and Bucky left the orphanage just before my birthday when we finished the ninth grade. At that time if you wanted any education beyond ninth grade you had to shell out tuition and that was not happening. It was the height of the depression and the two of us needed to find work fast.  
  
We ended up sharing a five story walk up with a couple other guys. We all worked different times so we were almost never there at the same time. Bucky took work where ever he could find it, he did all sorts of things. He worked on the docks, stocked stores; he even did some running for one of the local mobs.  
  
When I wasn't sick I mainly did things like sign painting. Had a paper route for a while and then a job opened up at the WPA. First regular paycheck I ever had. I didn't do anything fancy just a couple of posters here and there. Taught some art classes. It was pretty much the same deal as jobcorp except they had us doing public art instead of building roads.  
  
I was out on my own for close to ten years  before I became Captain America. I mean I was only Captain America for a couple years before I was frozen. People think that's all that I ever did. Like I was born in that lab. But I’m getting off track.  
  
Times were rough sure but sometimes I think that was the best time of my life. Around Christmas we managed to sneak some paper decorations that had been thrown out by a local store. Bucky and I would save for months so we could buy each other something for Christmas. We’d do anything, pry pennies out of the gutter, whatever we could find. We usually gave each other a chocolate bar and then maybe if things were going well he’d give me some paper and pencils. I would give him a new cap and gloves that I knitted up. After we would head over to Our Lady of Perpetual Help for a midnight mass.  
  
Then Pearl Harbor happened and everything changed.  
  
 **On the Front.**  
  
When we were on the front there wasn't any Christmas truce. Not like there was during World War I. We barely even registered that it was Christmas. Would’a missed it if we hadn't been back at base. Because we were back in time we were able to get a decent dinner and take time to go to church. A lot of guys spent that Christmas in foxholes during the Battle of the Bulge. For most of us it was a day to be grateful for surviving as long as we had.  
  
It was a little tricky for us. We were the only integrated unit in the army. And some of the churches didn't really want some of my men in them. We ended up going to three different churches before we found one that would let all of us in. Everyone was too terrified to light up candles during the service even though the windows were covered. But it was nice and dry and warm and the singing was really beautiful.  
  
…  
  
“So what did you do last year?” Darcy asked.  
  
“Ugh, Tony was having party after party after party; charity event after charity events trying to raise money to rebuild after the Battle and Sandy. I don't mind doing my bit but it was exhausting. I still didn't really want to be in the 21th century and wanted nothing more but to go home and sit quietly in my apartment with my sketchpad.”  
  
“The best part is when Tony ended up banning mistletoe from the tower. Pepper and Phil ended up under it all the time. Tony was convinced Phil was making a move on Pepper. I think they did it just to drive Tony insane. Pepper mentioned something about revenge for a giant rabbit.”  
  
“I know about the giant rabbit.” Darcy said. “Pepper has forbidden him from buying her any more gifts un-chaperoned, shoes excluded. This year he had his brilliant assistant do the shopping for him.”  
  
“Ah that’s why the brilliant assistant was late tonight?”  
  
“Yep” Darcy giggled “Don't look now Steve but I think Kringus is here.”  
  
“What?”  
  
“Look at the tree.”  
  
The two of them could see the cat staring out at them from the tree his eyes reflected in the lights.  
  
Steve gave her his best “I have no idea what you're talking about” look.  
  
“I'll introduce you to the comic later, but I think the cat’s found its name.”  
  
“Kringus. ?”  
  
“Yep.”  
  
Steve shook his head. “You’re a little crazy. I like that.”  
  
“Right back at you, Babe” She stretched up to give him a peck on the cheek. Steve turned and met her lips first.  
  
The newly named Kringus climbed out of the tree around the time the first article of clothing hit the floor. It wasn’t as much fun when the humans stopping paying attention. They were being too loud. He wandered off to find a soft (a quiet!) place to nap.  
  
When Steve was down to nothing but pants he picked Darcy up and carried her off to the bedroom. He kicked the door closed behind them.  
  
A few minutes later there was a screech, a yelp and a thump. The bedroom door opened, and Kringus was deposited on the floor. The bedroom door clicked firmly closed behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> Kringus is a character from PVPonline the web comic. Scratch Fury, (a cat) becomes the evil Kringus around the Yule Season by merging with a Christmas Tree.
> 
> The descriptions of Steve’s Christmas memories are based on limited historical research.


End file.
